Do I need to send back my membership card? Is everything on the internet true?

I am uncomfortable... Seriously uncomfortable.

I became a Republican when I could first vote - the presidential election of 1992. I grew up watching Ronald Reagan on TV and seeing the rather uninspiring candidates the Democrats offered up. I was young and wanted to grow up and study business and make money and keep it (and those darned Democrats wanted to take it away). I was too young to worry about education, too young to understand the complexities of issues like abortion, and had never been a citizen during a war. George Bush 'the first' seemed like a solid guy... and he said 'read my lips, no new taxes' (even if he did have to go back on that 1988 campaign promise). I did not yet have a job, or a retirement account, so the recession the US was in wasn't impacting me.

As I have gotten older I have educated myself (and been educated by my wife and friends) on a broader set of issues, and learned about them with a little more depth. I am by no means a policy wonk, and I can't say that I really know the details of what every policy would cost, the implications and ramifications domestic and abroad... I just have my opinion, like 250 million other Americans.

I have taken 3 of these on-line 'candidate selector' quizzes this evening. This is after surfing the web for a while to try to figure out exactly what the difference is between 'marriage' and 'civil union' and 'domestic partnership'. This is also after reading up on candidates positions on universal health care, plans for exiting Iraq, and what the hell do we do with the whack-o running Iran?

What came back in these quizzes surprised me a little, didn't surprise my wife one bit, and has me wondering if I am required by some internet quiz law to return my RNC Membership card.

I have long held that I am socially liberal, and fiscally conservative. When my wife says I am really a Democrat in denial, I correct her and explain that I am a moderate Republican. One friend back in Oregon told me after I explained this odd amalgamation of beliefs that I was a Libertarian and that he was one as well, and that I could start attending some meetings with him. I politely (at least I thought it was polite, since I tried to make it a joke) explained to him that I liked winning too much to be a Libertarian.

So, I took these 3 on-line quizzes. Here were the results in the order I took them...

Quiz #1
1) John McCain - a moderate republican, so I was OK with this, but don't think he'll get the Republican nomination, despite being the most qualified GOP candidate - in my opinion
Here's where it got interesting...
Tied at #2 and #3 were Obama and Hillary Clinton

I just don't like Hillary... I can't put my finger on it... but I don't like her. I don't think it's the woman thing... I was raised by a strong woman who was a single mom... I married a strong woman... I would have been every bit as likely to vote for Elizabeth Dole as Bob Dole... I just don't know what it is about this woman.

Obama I kind of like, but mostly 'cause he's fresh and engergetic, and new, and because he's not Hillary... Oh yeah, and 'cause of Oprah (just kidding).

The next one I took looked like this:
1) Bill Richardson - moderate Democrat... This threw me a little - the life long (as long as I could vote) Republican was a little shaken, but...
2) At #2 was Rudy... a Republican that was pro-life... this might be my guy... but he's a proponent of staying in Iraq... below I have a summary of my personal positions on issues... Iraq is one place we don't align well.
3) Damn it, Hillary again!

So I took this one again... I eliminated any 'neutral' answers, forcing myself to agree to some extent or disagree to some extent on the issues... she moved up to #2... so I did what any rational person would do... left that quiz and went onto another one... hoping she would go away.

Quiz #3:
1) Chris Dodd... someone I honestly had barely heard of... On the Democratic side, I had only paid attention to Obama, Clinton and Edwards.
2) Damn you Hillary... you are like that bad Chinese Mexican food - you just won't go away!
3) John Edwards

So here I am... I went from Quiz #1 - a Republican at #1 with 2 Democrats behind, to Quiz #2 with a Democrat at #1, but a Republican at number 2 (and another Democrat at #3), to the last Quiz, which had all top 3 candidates Democrats, as well as Hillary moving up to be alone in second place...

I chickened out and refused to take anymore quizzes... Had I taken another quiz, I am convinced I would have seen Hillary's name at the top of my list... which means I would head to bed feeling miserable... and my wife would never let me forget it.

I went ahead and listed the basic positions I have that lead to these results... Only read on if you are a political junkie like me, or you are extremely bored!

Cheers,
Joe

Here are the areas where I align with traditionally conservative and traditionally liberal positions - some of you will disagree somewhat or greatly with these positions - here's hoping it doesn't ruin friendships (or marriages). :)

Conservative Positions:

• I still want to keep my money, which means lower taxes
• I think illegal aliens, by definition are not here legally and should be sent home - there are legal ways to come to the US, please use them
• If there is no better way to stop the passage of illegal aliens and drugs into the US from Mexico, build the wall
• Smaller government is better than bigger government, let States decide on as many issues as possible
• Social Security as it exists today is a ticking time bomb... Allow for a portion of the money in my account to be directed to the stock market, which over any 10 year period has never returned less than 8% (past performance is no indication of future results, blah, blah, blah... I'll take my chances)
• I just can't see how we can afford universal health care... See bullet #1 where I want to keep my money... Cover ALL children. Cover them until they turn 18, or 21. But universal is hard to pay for. Incentivize businesses to provide coverage and partially fund coverage.
• The second amendment - right to keep and bear arms. I do believe that this was meant in the context of a well armed militia, but it has been interpreted to mean any Tom, Dick or Harriet who wants to own a gun, should be able to... I am OK with this, and own a number of firearms myself. I imagine every framer of the constitution owned a firearm, regardless of their plans of being in the military of the time... I think this is a constitutional right that should be protected. However, if you look at my liberal positions below, you'll see I break with conservatives slightly.
  

Liberal Positions:

• I can't tell a woman what she can and can't do with her body. Personally, I hope that my family never has to make a decision about terminating a pregnancy... And if we did, I pray we are strong enough to carry any baby to term and love that child regardless of the circumstances... but until I am faced with that situation, I can not honestly say what I would advocate. I feel like Roe vs. Wade is a decent compromise - until the fetus is viable outside the womb (as defined at the time) a woman is free to choose what she does with her body.
• Marriage, Civil Unions, Domestic Parterships... What do I care? If two people of the same sex want to get married and get the same benefits that I do as a heterosexual married couple, great. It is not for me to define who is allowed to love who, and if two people love each other, then let them get married... and let them deal with each other's families, and let them deal with each other and all the challenges and all the greatness that comes with that. I can't get behind the religious right who says that the bible forbids homosexual relationships... the bible also says you can sell your daughter into slavery... we don't do that... it also says wives should be subserviant to their husbands.... OK, maybe that one is a good one... I'll have to talk with Steph about it... Anyhow, I do believe the bible is the word of God... I also believe that God was not necessarily being literal in every passage in the bible... there are parts of the bible that are allegorical.
  
• Stem cell research should be federally funded... even if the 'life begins at embryo' belief were one that I held, as I understand the data, the majority of the research is done on embryos that would be discarded otherwise... so we can throw them in the trash can, but we can't learn how to eradicate diseases with them? This makes no sense to me.
• Gun Control - by all means the 2nd amendment should be protected, but I can't be a strict constitutionalist on this topic. Guns are OK with limits. Background checks should be OK. Bans or regulation on assault weapons should be OK. The unchecked ability for people to procure whatever harbinger of death they choose seems silly to me... can't we agree on some middle ground? Can't we agree that automatic assault weapons are a reasonable place to draw the line? Evidently not.
• Iraq - get out. Be more diplomatic. Fire whoever told you there were WMDs. If they didn't tell you that and you manufactured it, shame on you. I can't agree with setting a specific deadline - I have to agree that telling the enemy the day you are leaving is not good strategy (philosophically, since I have no military experience whatsoever)... but put a phased plan in place with our allies and get out... if they can't run the country themselves in 6 months, with all the damned oil money they have... what makes us think they will be able to do so in 12 months? 24? 36?
  

A little slice of Christmas

As Christmas approaches, we decided somewhat on a whim to host a holiday party at our apartment last weekend. We knew we were going to lose some potential attendees with the proximity to the holiday (some people traveling early) and the late notice (some people had other holiday parties already scheduled).

I think part of our interest in hosting the party was to try to make it feel a little more like Christmas. The tree is up and trimmed, we downloaded a ton of Christmas music, and Steph did a great job of decorating the apartment, but it still does not quite feel like Christmas. It's cold - which is better than my boss who's an expat in Malaysia where it's 80+ degrees every day! But it still doesn't feel much like Christmas. I guess I should not be surprised, given being in China.

We made the decision not to go home for Christmas. Intel only pays for 1 home leave trip a year, so we decided to use it this coming summer, when Olivia is out of school. We thought briefly about paying to head home ourselves, but the tickets would have been roughly $6K, and our travel budget is already earmarked for the Chinese New Year trip to New Zealand.

So that being said, we decided to manufacture a little Christmas cheer by hosting a holiday gathering. We provided drinks, and asked everyone to bring their favorite holiday dessert. We targeted a late start time, to allow for all the attendees (and us) to take care of kids before coming. We set up the girls at a friends house with their daughter - a regular babysitter of ours - and at 8:00pm we had the lights turned low, and with Christmas music on iTunes we were ready to receive guests.

We had roughly 25 people attend, which was great. Not too many folks, but a great mix of people we had met from our different areas of life in Shanghai. Some friends from work, some friends from my basketball team, and a number of other expats we have met either in our complex or through Olivia's school.

The most popular drink of the night was not a very 'holiday' drink. The popular drink, at least with the women in attendance was a Cosmopolitan. It was popular enough that I ran out of cranberry juice before midnight! Seeing as this was my first ever attempt at this drink, I was happy that I didn't ruin them!

By midnight we were down to a core group of friends from here in our complex. Dwayne and Dana were ready to head home, and our kids were asleep in their bed, so we had to close the party down around 1:00am. Our friend Patrick was jokingly complaining about this being the first time he had been kicked out of a party early... He looked at Steph and said with a straight face 'Lovely party, we won't be coming next year'. I guess we'll learn not to give the McStravick's the boot early!

We gathered up our kids at the Canfield's and brought them home and snuggled them into their beds.

It was a great night... It still doesn't feel like Christmas, but a holiday party made it a little more bearable!

Hoops in China... For real this time...

Fresh off my Intercultural Training, and being the newly culturally sensitive guy I am, let me be sure to start with a disclaimer that any references to Chinese people playing basketball are specific only to the people with which I have played to this point, and is in no way meant to be a blanket statement on the skill or playing style of all Chinese pick up basketball players... Legal disclaimer out of the way, here we go....

I have been a gym rat most of my life... After college, I played in city leagues, rec leagues, open gym at high schools. The year I traveled around the country working for my Fraternity I played on college campuses in rec games all over the country.

I found a group of expat guys to play with here in China. It was been a great time. The competition varies from week to week, and from night to night, depending on the fate of free throw shooting to determine teams. We play every Wednesday night at one of the International Schools, that luckily is only a few blocks from our apartment, so I can ride my bike over and back.

There are a few things that have been especially fun about playing with these guys. For one, they are all in a similar situation, from somewhere else, living in China. Some of them are on year 1 (like me), some of them have been here for 3 or more years. There are 2 guys that have lived in Asia for decades, but still hail from the USA.

Also, they are fundamentally a good group of guys. They are all fairly competative, but they also seem to put the pick up games in the right perspective - all of us are using this as a means to get into a little bit better shape. (Speaking of, I am glad to report that I am down to about 210 pounds - from my China arrival weight of roughly 230 pounds! The goal is to get down to sub-200, someplace I have not consistently been since high school).

We play full court, 5 on 5, on the main court, or play on the cross court (sightly smaller) floors, which allows 2 games at one time if we get enough guys. The competition is decent.

In addition to this Wednesday night game, one of the guys (who is the varsity boys basketball coach at the high school we play at) organized about 15 of us to play in a local league/tournament. He had a big roster (15) since so many of us travel, we needed to account for spotty attendance.

As it turns out, there are no other expat teams in this league. It's all local teams. Before I describe the league, I'll explain about the local pick up game I played with the Chinese guys tonight.

I had heard from one of the guys on the team that the gym I belong to has a pick up game on Tuesday nights. Since I am stull pushing towards my sub-200 goal, another night of pick up hoops could not hurt. I got the OK from Steph and headed off to the gym.

I assumed going in that basketball is basketball, and really didn't think my not speaking Chinese would be that big a deal. This was not entirely true. First I had to figure out how to actually get into the game. In most gyms in the US, or on playgrounds, you talk to the guys sitting out and determine 'who's got next' - meaning which of the players sitting out is going to challenge the winners. If they have their full team, you find 'who's got next after them' and if no one does, you announce 'I've got next' and as new players show up, or losing teams come off the floor, you pick up players.

Imagine trying to manage that in China with no language skills... Luckily these guys saw me show up in my gear and saw me sitting out and motioned me into the 2nd game after I arrived.

They were playing 5 on 5, so I felt comfortable with that - recognizing my team mates was a little hard since they don't go shirts or skins or lights and darks. Also, I was surprised to notice, that even though they had the full court, they were only playing half court. Also, the games were only to 5 points. Quick games, and only half court... I was concerned about potentially having to play until 10:00pm to get a good work out in!

As it turns out, they play lots of quick games, so if you go hard you can get a decent work out in - nothing like when you run full court, but better than sitting in front of the PC rambling on about basketball experiences from 10 years ago (sorry if you got caught up in that last post).

I also realized after the games why the half court and short games might be preferred. When I walked out of the gym, at least 1/2 of the guys involved were standing outside the gym smoking cigarettes. No wonder they are limiting their activity - they are probably struggling for breath!

It was decent fun, and a little interesting picking up on the quirks of the Chinese pick up game - some of them are listed below, and if you play pick up hoops you might notice some of the differences. It seems to be an interesting mix of 'real game rules' and 'pick up rules'.
1) half court, not full
2) games to 5 points - the previous shortest pick up games I have played in have been 7, but usually 11
3) fouls and balls out of bounds are inbounded from the baseline or sidelines, as opposed to checked in from the top of the key

The language barrier was a little more impact than I expected. I have always been coached to talk when you play - call out screens for team mates, let them know when people are cutting, call 'shot' when someone shoots, etc... I was doing these things, but not getting any expected reaction from my team mates... which could be that they don't understand the English words I am using, or they are just not good enough to know how to react. Could be either, but I am betting on 'no English'.

Some things that are the same everywhere is when a bunch of guys are out to have a good time and play a little hoops, with the right set of attitudes, the games can be pretty funny... when guys dribble off their feet (which included me once) everyone belly laughs... when one guy blocks another guys shot, everyone 'oohs' and teases the 'blockee'... when you lose a close one, everyone walks off the court dejected. That makes you feel like hoops is hoops, be it in China, or in Portland, OR.

So back to the local league we are playing in. Our Wednesday night games are more competitive than what I played in tonight. Some of the locals that were there tonight are in our league.

We learned after our first couple of games that the local guys are not in as good of shape as we are... which surprised us, since outside of a couple of guys, we don't think of ourselves as particularly 'in shape'. But we really take over in the second halves of these games. 5 of our 7 wins to this point have been by 25 or more points.

There are 8 teams in the league, and we have played 7 of them, running our record to 7-0. Our biggest problem to this point has been ourselves. We loaded the team with lots of bodies to insure against travel, but guys have not been traveling that much, so every game we have lots of bodies to try to get into the game, and that means short playing spurts, which means it's hard for guys to 'get a feel'. Just about the time you are warming up, you are getting subbed out!

There are 2 teams that kept it pretty close against us. One was about a 10 point game and last week's game was about 8. Last week we were actually down about 10 at half time - which surprised the heck out of us, but the smokers lung kicked in the second half, I had the guys cut down on the number of subs in the second half so players could get a little more comfortable on the floor and play a little better before coming out, and we pulled away.

We have 1 more league game after the holidays as a tune up to the championship game on the 19th of January. I expect that it will be a good championship game - either of the teams that played us close have a chance to beat us (we already clinched a spot in that game) if they shoot well, and get into any kind of shape between now and then... but the cigarettes won't help!

There was a funny thing with one team we played - the Yao Ming influence. Their team name was the Rockets - they commissioned Houston Rockets replica uniforms (jerseys and shorts). For those of you not familiar, the #1 export from China is not lead based paint toys, or electric appliances - it is the franchise known as Yao Ming, who plays in the NBA for the Houston Rockets. They love the guy over here. He played for the Shanghai Sharks and the Chinese National Team before being exported to Houston. These guys don't play like Ming, but they look like Ming... Reminds me of the Gatoraid commericals in the US when Jordan was popular 'If I could be like Mike'. They may not play like Yao, but they can look like him in their Rockets uniforms!

Cheers,
Joe

P.S. We beat the 'Jin Qiao Rockets' by 42... They could have used Yao! :)

This was supposed to be about basketball in China... something went awry...

This started as a post about playing hoops here in China... and something went hinky... I left the post as it was... The next one will be about hoops in China.

Fresh off my Intercultural Training, and being the newly culturally sensitive guy I am, let me be sure to start with a disclaimer that any references to Chinese people playing basketball are specific only to the people with which I have played to this point, and is in no way meant to be a blanket statement on the skill or playing style of all Chinese pick up basketball players... Legal disclaimer out of the way, here we go....

I no longer have a complex about the fact that Stephanie's blog is better than mine... I have simply accepted this as fact... A fact I continue to bring up every so often... but really, I am over it! She has better material, and was a Communications major in college for goodness sake! So I am left to babble on with little skill and poor material - neither being any fault of my own! :)

So as many of you know, I am a bit of a gym rat. I fell in love with basketball in the driveway of my grandparents house on the farm in Zanesville, Ohio. There was an old hoop in the driveway that was well under 10' tall. I actually credit my jump shot to that hoop being too low. It allowed me to grow up with proper form, not having to always heave the ball up to a 10' tall hoop. I took that love of hoops to Wyoming, where I played my first organized basketball in both a YMCA league and at Holy Name Elementary School. Then onto Sacred Heart and St. Mary's in Medford, Oregon (which included a great layup at the wrong basket), finishing up my organized 'career' (if you can really call it that) at Linfield College in McMinville, Oregon.

At the conclusion of my second year of playing Junior Varsity basketball for the Wildcats, I knew that I was not destined to see much playing time beyond that. The 'formula' (if you will) that got me through high school basketball didn't translate to the college game. I always showed up to practice on day 1 out of shape in high school... This was OK since our high school coach had to run off about 1/2 the guys who came out for the team anyway - so the first few weeks were nothing but a track meet... and then every drill we ran was full out full court... so within a month, you were well into 'basketball shape'.

I showed up to my freshman year of college basketball and weighed in on day 1 at 220 pounds. This was after playing at about 195 pounds (on a 6 foot frame) my senior year in high school. I didn't play much that summer after I graduated high school and showed up at college with very little in the way of good eating habits or exercise habits. I could eat whatever I wanted in high school - I played multiple sports year round, and that was my exercise routine. Freshman year of college I discovered a few new things... Beer being the primary downfall of my 'playing shape'. What little discipline I had was used up studying (although my mom might question the discipline that delivered a lowly 2.86 GPA my first semester).

And in college, the expectation is that you show up basically in shape. Practice time is spent on offensive and defensive schemes, plays, repetition of new skills being drilled into players. There was little time or energy for 'getting players into shape' that had not bothered to take care of themselves. I might have been able to change the course of my basketball direction had I made a commitment right then to being more disciplined... Unfortunately, I did not... Fraternity, girls, studies (not in that order mom, really) were distractions I let get in the way.

Anyhow, I knew after my second season with the 'Cats that if I was kept in the program, it would likely be either as a Junior on the JV team, or as the last guy off the bench on the Varsity - only likely to see playing time as a part of the 20-20 team (up 20 or down 20). And although I still hesitate to admit it, there was always the chance that I got cut altogether.

I walked into Larry Doty's office after my second season finished up and ate my pride and told him that I didn't want to take up a roster spot from someone who might help the program more. I know I was coachable, good attitude, always in the right place at the right time, but I knew my athletic limitations, and I was making the decision to hang up my sneakers. I was asking for an opportunity to stay involved with the program. I set my sights low and asked if I could manage the team or keep stats, anything he needed help with really. What happened next shocked me really... And set me on the course for 2 of the most enjoyable years of my life to that point.

Larry said that he had a coach leaving the staff. And that if I was willing to, he would ask the athletic director to extend me a contract as a paid coach for the college. I was floored. I loved the game, I loved the program, I loved the college, and now I had a chance to coach? I can't tell you how excited I was.

Now remember, Linfield is a Division III program at a 1500 student liberal arts college in McMinnville, OR. So it's not like I was a GA (Grad Assistant) at Duke. And the money was next to nothing... seriously next to nothing. But it was a contract with the college, it was the chance to learn more about the game I loved, and as it turned out... it was a chance for me to discover my passion.

My first season on staff my role was primarily dedicated to 2 things. First and foremost recruiting - which the entire staff took part in. We divvied up the local kids we wanted to recruit and a couple of nights a week, off we went to see high school basketball games and talk to kids and parents afterwards. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I got to learn how to evaluate talent. How to look at how a kid played, what his strengths and weaknesses were, how he carried himself on the floor (with his team mates, against the competition and with the officials). Then I would talk to the parents and the kids about the school and the program and occasionally give tours of the facilities and the campus.

The other responsibility I had was scouting upcoming opponents. I spent a lot of other time in the gyms of other opponents sitting high up in the bleachers writing down tendencies of individual players (must force left - has no left hand; must not lose him in transition - finishes well at the basket; can help of this guy on defense, can't hit water falling out of a boat), as well as documenting specific plays (out of bounds plays and set offensive plays). My job was to take this information and put together a skeleton of a game plan for Dotes to review before he made final decisions on game plans consulting with the coaches on staff. The way I saw it my job - which I took very seriously - was to put they guys on the floor in the best position to be competitive - to prepare them to compete. Execution was up to them (thank goodness given my lack of vertical leap and lateral speed), but I could do my part by trying to insure they knew what to expect. I ended up doing most of the scouting since many of the games we needed to scout were on the same night the varsity was playing, so I would be working while they were playing.

My last responsibility that first season was as assistant coach for the junior varsity team. I was assisting Jeff Autencio, and assisting meant everything from insuring that the pre-game meals were arranged, to insuring the vans were ready for road trips, to occasionally putting the gear on and practicing with the team when we were short handed players... whatever Jeff needed, I did... and I was happy to do so. I was loving it.

At the end of the first season, I was exhausted. I had been to probably 100 high school and/or college games, assisted in 20+ JV games, assisted in a handful of varsity games, reviewed game film of opponents and our players, and all for a few bucks.... but I was hooked. I loved every minute of it.

Now I can't end the description of the first season without giving proper recognition to my wife. She and I had just started dating that year. I can't tell you the number of 'dates' we had on Friday or Saturday nights that involved us going to see a high school basketball game in Salem, or Dayton, or Sherwood, where she had to sit around afterwards alone while I went to talk to an athlete or his parents. Or going to Willamette to scout the team on Friday night that we were going to play on Saturday. Hot dog dinners with popcorn side dishes, and a Twix for dessert. All the time I am scribbling furiously in a notepad and explaining to her this would all work much easier if we just talked during timeouts and half time. I look back at it and can't believe she still married me!

I learned the most from this coaching experience at Linfield in my second and last year on staff. Larry felt comfortable enough to trust me with the Junior Varsity team on my own... I was a head coach for the first time, and in only my second year of coaching. I reality, what happened was that he really needed Jeff's attention and focus on the varsity squad. With the teaching, coaching, scouting and recruiting that Larry still did, plus his own kids sporting events, he needed a full time assistant coach at the varsity level... There were only 3 full time coaches - Larry, Jeff and I. So Larry and Jeff focused on the varsity team, and I had my first team.

I won't bore you with the details of that entire season - although I remember them like yesterday, these 10 years later. I will just summarize a few things I remember learning that have stuck with me, and that I use today as a leader (program manager, manager) at Intel.

First, I love coaching. I love being responsible for putting people in a position to be successful. Whether that's on the basketball court, or in the confines of my business group at Intel. The methodology - what I do to try to put them in a position to be successful is slightly different, but also slightly the same. One thing that is different is the motivational time frame. In basketball, I was motivating kids in short bursts - 2 to 3 hour practices, and 40 minute games. In the corporate world, I am motivating people over longer periods of time - the 9+ months to deliver a project like the one I am on now, or the 13 weeks it took us to deliver motherboards when I was managing a validation team. What's similar is my responsibilities as a coach or leader: Making sure there is a clear plan (game plan in hoops, project plan in a program, group objectives in managing a team), making sure people understand and can get behind that plan, recognizing good performance and rewarding that, recognizing bad performance and correcting that, and insuring that there is a process for documenting and focusing on delivering improvement season over season or product generation over product generation.

One of my good friends once told me when I was struggling at Intel in my first management job, "you are never as good a manager as you think you are, and you are never as bad a manager as you think you are". I think that he was right. I think back to coaching at Linfield that second year, and I remember 2 things really vividly - 2 pieces of feedback that I had to take and make changes to my coaching style immediately.

One was when I took the Junior Varsity team to an away game at a community college in Washington. These guys were big. And athletic. Many of them went to a JuCo for 2 years to address grade issues or discipline issues to get themselves in a position to play DI or DII basketball. These guys were manhandling us. They were bigger than my kids, more aggressive than my kids and more physical than my kids. I thought we were getting beat up pretty badly and the refs were letting it happen. I was all over them. Every trip up and down the floor was another missed call I could be pissed about and let loose with a smart assed remark. To their credit, not only did they not give me a technical, one of them gave me a piece of advice. He said 'hey coach, why don't you spend more time coaching your kids and less time yelling at me'. I had let myself get wrapped up in the officiating of the game, thinking that I was defending my kids - protecting my kids. What I was really doing was abandoning them. They were getting killed physically, and I was abandoning them emotionally, since all of my emotion was directed at the officials. We lost that game badly - but I learned a lesson. One I try to use to this day - control what I can control, stay focused on that. Acknowledge what I can't control, but when I realize it really can't be impacted, it is indeed immovable, forget about it, and figure out the next plan or strategy.

The second thing I learned was via a kid to a parent through my wife. We were at a road game. We played OK, and won a tight game. I talked to the kids after the game (can't remember a thing I said), and released them to talk to parents and friends, shower and meet for the ride back to school in an hour. Steph was in the stands as one of the kids was having a conversation with their parent. The parent was congratulating them on a good game, and asking them more specifically about some comment they made (that Steph did not hear). The kid explained that the win was great, but they weren't having a lot of fun. That coach was always real serious and more or less a slave driver. OUCH.

Looking back now, with the advantage of a decade more experience, up to that point, I think he was right. I was still only 21 or 22 years old and fairly immature. As far as I was concerned, these guys were talented, and they had a chance to win most of the games they played in. And foolishly, I assumed that 'fun' was dictated almost completely be whether you won or lost. I made a real effort at that point to lighten and loosen up and try to let these guys have fun, but keep a certain amount of pressure on them to continue to improve and stay focused. This was not, afterall, the NBA, or an NCAA DI Conference, or even the varsity team... This was what amounted to a DIII developmental league!

This is also something I took with me to leading and managing at Intel... It can't all be about accomplishing 'deliverables' or 'milestones' or 'tasks'. Some people inherently feel success and enjoyment from that (see: my wife), but some people have to enjoy how they got there. Especially in the pressure cooker that is sports, or a high pressure corporate environment - slave driver managers turn their team over for the sake of accomplishing short term deliverables... we see it all the time. They are effective at getting short term results, but not efficient or effective over the long term. Many people probably read this and said 'duh, people need to enjoy their work, you idiot', but I had to learn that that hard way... I had to learn that my idea of fun was different than theirs - and to keep them motivated, I had to learn how their fun and my job could co-exist.

That team that was my JV squad ended up winning a conference championship a couple of years later, once I was on to working in 'corporate America'. Who knows what, if any, impact I had on their development and their eventually reaching that goal. Like I said, they were a talented bunch of kids. What I do know, is that I probably wasn't as good a coach as I thought I was, but I probably wasn't as bad either... much like today.

Anyhow, this post was a complete indulgence on my part... nothing to do with China afterall... I got started on hoops, and my experience, and could not get off of it... if you made it this far, my apologies... I'll really post about playing basketball in China in the next one... I promise!

Cheers,
Joe

The Welsh Chinese Christmas Tree - Pictures!

Tree - $70 USD, made in China

Ornaments - Steph won't tell me what she spent, but made in China

Kids being convinced Santa comes to China - Priceless!

The crooked tree arrives.

The crooked tree is 'straightened'.

The girls decorate... Note the well spread out application of ornaments!














The star goes on the tree!

The final product!

Grab a couple of things at Home Depot on your way home...

Thursday night was Chirstmas tree night. Stephanie found what a friend of our calls 'a proper Christmas tree' from a company here in Shanghai. I have to admit it's better than the local trees, and an artifical tree is just so hard for us coming from the Northwest where we cut down our own tree, and before that, growing up in Ohio, we always had a real tree that my grandad hauled out of the woods. All that being said, it was still almost $70 USD! Another proof point that in Shanghai, you can find everything you can find anywhere else, just at a price!

So the $70 investment made, we were set to trim the Christmas tree. Just one problem - many of the ornaments that we bought since we arrived did not have hooks. And Steph needed some tape to put some things up, and we agree to hang some lights in the girls bedroom, requiring some nails, or fastening mechanism of some sort.

No problem, there is a B&Q, which is the Chinese version of Home Depot, just a couple of blocks away... I should have no problem picking up what we needed.

As with most blog posts about China, when I open with 'should be no problem'... well you can imagine.

Luckily I brought the Chinese/English dictionary with me. I knew no one at B&Q speaks English, and we needed to get this tree trimmed in time for the girls to get to bed at a decent hour!

I walk up to the first person I see and already having plotted out my strategy, I show him the word from the dictionary for 'wire'. The plan is to buy some metal wire and make my own hooks for the ornaments. Unfortunately he takes me to the 'electrical wire section'. When I try to explain in English that this isn't what I am looking for, he decides to take out a piece of paper and write it in Chinese characters! I am always amazed and a little frustrated at this... if I can't speak Chinese, you think I can read it? But then I imagine this guy thinking, if you know I can't speak English and you are using a dictionary, when it's the wrong thing, you expect me to understand English when you try to describe it in more detail?

So I then am struck with a stroke of genuis - I look up the word for 'metal' and 'string' thinking that 'metal string' will surely explain perfectly what I am looking for! He nods his head and takes me to a section with string and rope. I show him the words again, emphasizing 'metal'. He nods his head more vigourously this time and marches off in another direction... Surely we are making progress! He takes me right to the chain section. I kind of laugh, thinking "well, this is pretty close to 'metal string'".

Giving up on the 'metal string' I decide to ask him about tape - asking being me looking it up in the dictonary and pointing. Since he was originally convinced that I was looking for something electrical, he takes me to electrical tape. Not quite what I was looking for! I tried to look up the work for 'clear' or 'scotch' to add to tape (since that worked so well with 'metal string') but couldn't get it right... so I gave up. Luckily I happened to walk by some packing tape - by complete accident, which is what Steph was looking for.

I was able to 'save Christmas' by stopping by the sports store and getting fishing line to use in place of hooks on the ornaments.

Much of being in China is accepting that everything takes longer to do than you expect, and at the end of the day, you have to get creative and compromise!

Here is the finished product.

My first Ohio State - Michigan Game in China

Overcoming technical difficulties with Slingbox, I was able to watch the game! It kicked off at 1:00am here in Shanghai, and through the amazing technology that is SlingMedia's Slingbox, I was able to watch the game 'live'. I put 'live' in quotes, since I was chatting with a friend on IM while the game was on, and it seemed that I actually saw everything on about a 13 second delay. Not bad considering the box on my friend in Seattle's TV is grabbing video and 'slinging' it across the internet to my PC in China!

I watched the entire game, and drug myself off to bed at 4:30am. Steph took pity on me (she just doesn't understand my passion for college football and the Ohio State Buckeyes) and let me sleep in a little... Not too much because we had a walking tour of an area of Shanghai at 8:00am the next morning. You can read about that amazing tour here: www.swelsh73.blogspot.com

That wake up call was rough, but not as rough as it might have been had we not dispatched the Wolverines in fine fashion 14-3.

Next up for the Bucks: BCS National Championship Game versus LSU. Luckily that game is an 8:00pm start in the US (Eastern Time), so it'll be a 9:00am game here! Much more manageable.

Go Bucks!